Look at this way cool pano. You can see the sunset and the light on the right and you can see the moon rise and the darkness on the left. I'm also in the picture twice so that's lit.
A member named Joe's car wouldn't start so we pushed it until it started. He took this picture of us.
A few random pictures of Laos as we drove.
We drove to Northern Laos.
There were some really cool mountains and trees.
On our P-day we hiked up a flippin high mountain and explored a cool cave. It took us 2 hours to hike up the mountain. The whole thing was way steep and super muddy. A ton of people slipped and got scratches and cuts.
This is a view from the top.
This is the staircase going to the cave entrance.
Elder Holms took some boof selfies on my phone.
Inside the cave.
Some legit Laos stuff.
This bridge is orange.
More views.
Our district in the cave.
More legit Laos stuff.
My Letter:
This last week we had fast Sunday. I really love fast Sundays because we fast or don't eat food for 24 hours and we do this to show obedience to God's commandments. We also give the money for the meals that we would have eaten to the church which is then given to people who are in desperate need of help. You might have the question, "Why is not eating for 24 hours something you love to do?" Well that is a good question. The key is doing it in obedience to God. If you just don't eat food, that is just starving yourself. Before I start fasting, I will pray to God and tell him that I am starting my fast, and I will also pray for some things that I want to think about while I am fasting. I find that I have a clearer mind when I fast. A lot of times in life our physical desires can be strong and they can be stronger than our desires for the things we know that we need. Fasting helps our spirit to be stronger and we can overcome the earthly desires. I have had so many cool experiences with fasting and this is why I love it.
At church for every fast Sunday, (first Sunday of each month) we have a testimony meeting at church. For about 40 minutes, anyone at all can stand in front of the congregation and share their beliefs to everyone, or experiences that they have had to strengthen their testimony. It is the exact same thing here in Laos on the other side of the world as back home in Arkansas. Anyways, we just started teaching this new person about the gospel lately. His name is Kay. He just barely turned 8 years old and his grandfather just recently got baptized. He has been coming to church for about 8 Sundays now. Kay and his grandfather, SingTong, sit in the very front seats every Sunday, so that is cool. Kay has already made really good friends in the church and two of them, little 7 year old girls, run up to the front and grab Kay. They drag him up to the stand where there is a microphone and the whole congregation is watching. The two little girls who are his friends make him say his testimony into the microphone. He doesn't know what to say, so the girls whisper in his ear what to say. It was one of the cutest little things I had ever seen.
We had zone conference this week, but our zone is in Thailand, so we had to get a ton of visa/passport stuff worked out and cross the border to go to zone conference. It is a big trip, and brain tiring, but it is so much fun to be back in Thailand for a bit though.
We talked a lot about the priesthood, which is the power of God bestowed upon those who are worthy to have it. One of my favorite parts was talking about the differences of the church here in Thailand and Laos and America. The church is still very new in Thailand and Laos, and sometimes it seems like the white, American people have the strongest priesthood and the most authority to use it, but that is dead wrong. A new member who lives in the back corners of the earth in Laos has just as much power as a nice old man living in the center of Utah who hasn't missed a day of church in years. (as long as they are both worthy to use it.) I think us, being missionaries, know this fairly well, but those new members who live in Thailand and Laos don't know that. I want to try to focus for the next while to teach the members this truth. Hopefully it will give them more of a desire to be worthy of this by following the commandments.
We started another English class this week. It is at a place called CMR. We teach beginner every Monday and Wednesday and we teach intermediate every Tuesday and Thursday. Our schedule is starting to be very full, so that is fun. I enjoy teaching.
Hope you all have a good week,
-Elder Barron
